- Chapter Thirty-Six -
belonged - a zone characterized by apocope, syncope and associated umlaut
phenomena, all occurring within a period stretching from the fourth to the eighth
century. The two zones are thus of slightly different date: the Latin zone was
obviously a consequence of the empire, while the distinctive characteristics of the
northern area were acquired in the immediate post-Roman period, at a time when
Britain was subject to invasion and settlement both from the west and from the east.
The development of British therefore reveals, in outline, the history of north-western
Europe in the Roman and post-Roman periods.
The Irish language was much less deeply influenced by Latin than was British. Yet,
because Irish enjoyed a higher status than did British, and because the aes dana, the
men of craft and learning, enjoyed a privileged position in society, the prestige of
Latin as a written language encouraged them to give their native language a similar
standing. Their language, too, was to be worthy of stone monument and parchment
book. The richness of Early Irish literature is a paradox: it owes its existence to the
example and challenge of Latin, but also to the independence of Ireland from the
Roman Empire. If Ireland had been part of the empire, Irish would have had a status
similar to that of British, one local language among many, overshadowed by the
immense cultural prestige of Latin.
CSEL
EWGT
ECMW
GPC
MGH
ZCPAbbreviations
Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesticorum Latinorum.
Early Welsh Genealogical Tracts, ed. P.c. Bartrum (Cardiff, 1966)
The Early Christian Monuments of Wales, V. E. Nash-Williams (Cardiff, 1950)
Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru
Monumenta Germaniae Historica
Zeitschrift fur celtische Philologie